Control system for automatic vending machine

ABSTRACT

In a terminal control unit, such as a display device ( 2 ), a control program is stored in a memory device which can electrically rewrite its data, such as a flash ROM ( 2   b ). The terminal control unit has a card connector ( 2   d ) provided therefor, and upon insertion of a memory card storing a control program for updating, into the card connector ( 2   d ), the control program for updating is transcribed from the memory card into the memory device, whereby updating of the program is performed. Further, when the updating operation is started, a main control unit ( 1 ) is notified of start of the updating operation, and therefore the main control unit ( 1 ) is prevented from executing a communication abnormality determining process even if it does not receive a response from the terminal control unit. By virtue of this setting, in a control system for the automatic vending machine, which is comprised of the plurality of terminal control units and the main control unit which integratedly controls the terminal control units, the control program for controlling each terminal control unit can be readily updated while the communication abnormality determining process is prevented from being executed.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a control system for an automaticvending machine, which is capable of rewriting a control program forcontrolling a terminal control unit such as a display device.

BACKGROUND ART

In control of an automatic vending machine in general, sections of theautomatic vending machine are divided into a plurality of blocks, andthe thus divided blocks are controlled by means of terminal controlunits, respectively, which are in turn integratedly controlled by a maincontrol unit. In such an automatic vending machine, it is sometimesdemanded that the terminal control unit has its control program changedbecause of partial change of the specification of the vending machineafter installing thereof. Description will be made of a change indisplay device, by way of example, which is one of the terminal controlunits.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a conventionaldisplay device. The display device 2 is connected to a main control unitthrough a signal line 6, and an amount indicator, an out-of-change stateindicator, etc. of the automatic vending machine are controlled, by wayof a CPU 2 a. A control program of the CPU 2 a is written in a PROM 2 g,and various data required for controlling the terminal control units arestored in a RAM 2 c.

Some of the display devices 2 having such the arrangement have been sodeveloped that they display not only the amount of a commodity and theout-of-change state but also advertisements and various kinds ofmessages. In such a display device of the automatic vending machine,when the displaying manner or the displayed message is changed afterinstalling thereof, the PROM 2 g is required to change its contents. Insuch a case, in the conventional display devices, new PROM's in whichnew programs and data are written are newly provided corresponding innumber to the number of the objective automatic vending machines.Further, a person in charge makes the rounds of the installed automaticvending machines, to thereby replace the old PROM's by the new ones.

In such a manner, however, the new PROM's must be prepared correspondingin number to the number of the CPU's which are subjected to programupdating. In addition, if the person in charge of mounting the PROM'sdoes not have some experience in the replacing task, he canunfortunately bend a terminal pin of an IC. As a result, theconventional method can impose a problem of a heavy cost.

On the other hand, a ROM, for storing therein a program may be formed bya ROM which can rewrite its data, such as a flash ROM, whereby theprogram can be updated without exchanging the ROM. However, when theprogram updating operation is carried out in the display device 2, forinstance, the display device 2 cannot respond to a query signal outputfrom the main control unit. Therefore, the main control unit executes aprocess for determining communication abnormality, to thereby stop itssubsequent communication to the display device 2. As a result, aftercompletion of the program updating operation of the display device 2,communication to the main control unit 1 cannot be performed, andtherefore the power source of the automatic vending machine has to beonce cut off and reset. This can cause a significantly cumbersome task.

The present invention is proposed to eliminate the above-mentionedproblems, to thereby readily carry out updating of the control programof the terminal control unit.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

To solve the aforesaid problems, a first object of the present inventionis to provide a control system for an automatic vending machine,including a plurality of terminal control units and a main control unitfor integratedly controlling the terminal control units, wherein amemory device which can electrically rewrite data stored therein isallowed to store a control program in each of the terminal controlunits, wherein the each of the terminal control units executes by itselfupdating of the control program stored in the memory device, wherein theeach of the terminal control units notifies the main control unit ofstarting of an updating operation thereof, prior to starting of theupdating operation, and wherein the main control unit does not executean communication abnormality determining process even if the maincontrol unit does not receive a communication signal from the terminalcontrol unit. As a result, the program can be updated without exchanginga ROM, and further the main control unit does not execute ancommunication abnormality determining process during execution of theprogram updating operation at the terminal control unit.

Further, a second object of the present invention is to provide thecontrol system for the automatic vending machine, wherein the each ofthe terminal control units has a card connector provided therefor, theeach of the terminal control units functioning, upon insertion of amemory card storing a control program for updating into the cardconnector, to transcribe the control program for updating from thememory card into the memory device. As a result, the program updatingoperation can be carried out only by inserting the memory card.

BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram of an automatic vending machineaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a display device according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the display deviceaccording to the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a conventional display device.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference tothe drawings showing an embodiment thereof.

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram of an automatic vending machine. Adisplay device 2 is comprised of indicators, such as an amount indicatorand an out-of-change state indicator, and control units for controllingthe same, respectively, none of which is shown. A coin discriminatingdevice 3 carries out discrimination of coins dropped in the automaticvending machine from a coin slot port, not shown, and ejection ofchange. A commodity dispenser device 4 is comprised of a commoditydelivery mechanism and a control unit therefor. An input device 5functions to set and change various set data of the automatic vendingmachine. A main control unit 1 executes integrated control of theseterminal control units by exchanging data between the terminal controlunits through a signal line 6, and provides instructions of operationsto the terminal control units.

The display device 2 is provided with an amount indicator formed, e.g.by a dot-matrix LED, which functions to display not only the amount ofdropped coins but also character data and graphic data. The controlthereof is executed, as shown in FIG. 2, by a CPU 2 a, a flash ROM 2 bwhich stores therein a program for operating the display device and datato be displayed, and a RAM 2 c for storing various data. The displaydevice 2 is further comprised of a card connector 2 d to which isconnected a memory card. Upon insertion of a memory card, not shown, inwhich a program for updating has been written, the program for updatingcan be transcribed into the flash ROM 2 b. An under-card-processingindicator LED 2 e is formed by an LED lamp which notifies, by beinglighted, that the memory card has been inserted into the card connector2 d to rewrite the contents in the flash ROM 2 b. A card abnormalityindicator LED 2 f is formed by an LED lamp which notifies, by beinglighted, that the contents of the memory card inserted into the cardconnector 2 d contains abnormality.

In the automatic vending machine, the program for updating can betranscribed from the memory card inserted into the card connector 2 d,into the flash ROM 2 b, and prior to the updating operation, the maincontrol unit 1 is notified of the start of the updating. Upon receptionof the notification, the main control unit 1 continues to issue a querysignal to the display device 2 until it receives notification ofcompletion of the updating. Even if the main control unit 1 does notreceive a response to the query signal, the main control unit 1 does notexecute a process for determining communication abnormality. The processof the updating operation at the display device 2 will be describedhereinbelow according to a process flowchart.

FIG. 3 shows the flowchart showing the operation at the display device.

At a step 1, the display device carries out normal display control.

At a step 2, it is determined whether or not the memory card is insertedinto the card connector 2 d, and if the memory card has not beeninserted, the process returns to the step 1.

At a step 3, if it is determined that the memory card is inserted, thecontents of data written in the memory card are checked, to therebydetermine whether or not the contents are data for updating for theflash ROM 2 b.

At a step 4, if the data written in the memory card are not the data forupdating for the flash ROM 2 b, the card abnormality display LED 2 f islighted, to thereby notify that the contents of the card are abnormal.

At a step 5, it is determined whether or not the memory card is stillinserted into the card connector 2 d.

At a step 6, if the memory card is pulled out of the card connector 2 d,the card abnormality display LED 2 f is turned off.

If it is determined at the step 3 that the contents are the data forupdating for the flash ROM 2 b, the under-card-processing indicator LED2 e is lighted at a step 7, to thereby notify that the memory card isbeing processed to prevent the memory card from being pulled out duringthe process.

At a step 8, the main control unit 1 is notified that the updatingoperation of the flash ROM 2 b is to be started. Upon reception of thenotification, the main control unit 1 supplies a query signal to thedisplay device 2 as heretofore, however, it does not execute thecommunication abnormality determining process even if it does notreceive a response from the display device 2.

At a step 9, a communication incapability flag of the display device 2is set, and thereafter communication from the display device to the maincontrol unit 1 is stopped.

At a step 10, a program necessary for the updating operation, i.e. aprogram for executing steps 12 to 14, is transcribed from the flash ROM2 b into the RAM 2 c.

At a step 11, the control is transferred to the program transcribed intothe RAM 2 c.

At a step 12, data in a program storing area of the flash ROM 2 b areerased.

At a step 13, a new program is read from the memory card, and the thusread program is written into the program storing area of the flash ROM 2b.

At a step 14, the control is transferred to the program written in theflash ROM 2 b. At this time, the state of the operation according to theprogram before the updating is stored in the RAM 2 c, and thereforeoperation is continued without any problem after the transfer of thecontrol to the new program.

At a step 15, the communication incapability flag of the display device2 is reset, followed by starting communication to the main control unit1 again.

At a step 16, the main control unit 1 is notified that the updatingoperation of the flash ROM 2 b is completed. Upon reception of thenotification, the main control unit 1 restores the control of thedisplay device as before.

At a step 17, the under-card-processing indicator LED 2 e is turned off,to thereby notify that the memory card can be pulled out of the cardconnector 2 d.

In the embodiment described above, the objective terminal control unitwhich has its program updated is the display device 2, and therefore thestate of updating can be directly displayed by the under-card-processingindicator LED 2 e. However, when a program of each terminal control unitother than the display device 2 is updated, each terminal control unitper se. cannot directly display the state. Therefore, upon reception ofnotification from any terminal control unit other than the displaydevice that the program updating operation is started, the main controlunit 1 may issue an instruction for displaying theunder-program-updating state, to the display device 2.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, updating of the contents ofthe flash ROM 2 b is carried out by using the memory card, but this isnot limitative. Alternatively, the display device 2 may be provided witha cable connector, for example, to which a portable terminal device forwriting data may be connected, whereby the contents of the flash ROM 2 bcan be updated.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described hereinabove, in the control system for automatic vendingmachines according to the present invention, a control program forcontrolling a terminal control unit is stored in a memory device whichcan electrically rewrite its data, and updating of the control programcan be executed at the terminal control unit. At the time of theupdating, the main control unit is notified of start of the updatingoperation, and therefore the main control unit is prevented fromexecuting a communication abnormality determining process even if itdoes not receive a response from the terminal control unit. As a result,the updating of the program can be executed without exchanging a ROM ofthe terminal control unit, and further the main control unit does notexecute the communication abnormality determining process duringexecution of the program updating operation at the terminal controlunit.

Further, in the control system for the automatic vending machineaccording to the invention, the terminal control unit is provided with acard connector, and when a memory card which stores therein a controlprogram for updating is inserted into the card connector, the controlprogram for updating is transcribed from the memory card to the memorydevice. As a result, the updating operation of the program can beachieved only by inserting the memory card.

What is claimed is:
 1. A control system for an automatic vendingmachine, including a plurality of terminal control units and a maincontrol unit for integratedly controlling said terminal control units:wherein a memory device which can electrically rewrite data storedtherein is allowed to store a control program in each of said terminalcontrol units; wherein said each of said terminal control units executesby itself updating of said control program stored in said memory device;wherein said each of said terminal control units notifies said maincontrol unit of starting of an updating operation thereof, prior tostarting of said updating operation; and wherein said main control unitis prevented from executing an communication abnormality determiningprocess even if said main control unit does not receive a communicationsignal from said terminal control unit.
 2. A control system for anautomatic vending machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said each ofsaid terminal control units has a card connector provided therefor, saideach of said terminal control units functioning, upon insertion of amemory card storing a control program for updating into said cardconnector, to transcribe said control program for updating from saidmemory card into said memory device.